{"id":5348,"date":"2021-05-18T09:08:53","date_gmt":"2021-05-18T08:08:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/?p=5348"},"modified":"2021-05-18T09:15:14","modified_gmt":"2021-05-18T08:15:14","slug":"day-3-of-5-of-our-inaugural-annual-not-literally-a-literary-festival-of-joinedupreadingandwriting-reading-and-writing-a-not-so-still-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/2021\/05\/18\/day-3-of-5-of-our-inaugural-annual-not-literally-a-literary-festival-of-joinedupreadingandwriting-reading-and-writing-a-not-so-still-life\/","title":{"rendered":"day 2 of 5 of our inaugural annual not literally a literary festival of JoinedUpReadingAndWriting. READING AND WRITING A NOT SO STILL LIFE"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

day 2 of 5 of our inaugural annual not literally a literary festival of JoinedUpReadingAndWriting.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

READING AND WRITING A NOT SO STILL LIFE<\/p>\n\n\n\n

by Norman Warwick<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Hush !!  I\u00b4m trying to figure out what\u00b4s going on here. That is definitely Val McDermid sitting over there, (on the left)<\/em><\/strong> talking to a journalist. I\u00b4ve been listening in for a couple of minutes, thinking I might learn something about writing, but Val keeps on chatting and chatting, about working in a newsroom in the seventies, coping with today\u00b4s lockdowns and the transformation of attitudes to gay couples in Scotland. All very interesting, but NOTHING<\/em><\/strong> to do with writing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I mean V<\/strong>al McDermid is 65, and, yes I know she is still younger than I am, but there must be much I could learn from her. You know she is sometimes referred to as the queen of crime, and her triumphantly Scottish oeuvre is dubbed \u00b4tartan noir\u00b4! She has written four series, the best-known featuring clinical psychologist Dr Tony Hill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Robson Green<\/em><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Wasn\u00b4t it Robson Green who used to play him in the the series they made on the telly? He played Dr Tony Hill, a clinical psychologist with empathy beyond the established boundaries of his science in Wire in the Blood you know he was all. Intelligent and compassionate, Its funny, though, I didn\u00b4t think he looked a bit like I had seem in the books. Maybe she hadn\u00b4t described him very well but she\u00b4s sold more than 16m novels and been translated into forty languages, so she\u00b4s had plenty of practive. Her latest, Still Life<\/em>, is out now in paperback.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u00b4ve read others of hers, and this one has been described as \u00b4an effortlessly gripping read\u00b4. See, \u00b4effortless\u00b4. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u00b4ve always thought writing is supposed to be easy so I must be doing something wrong, because I always find it bloody hard work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Quiet, quiet, The reporter has just asked her why is it we relish violent crime in fiction that we would be appalled to encounter in real life? Let\u00b4s listen in on the rest of the conversation,\u2026sssh! Val\u00b4s answering the question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


<\/strong>\u00b4Watching lightning strike in somebody else\u2019s house can be almost talismanic \u2013 seeing off the possibility of evil in your own life. It can be comforting reading crime novels where endings offer resolution. I don\u2019t mean that everything gets tied up with a neat little bow as in Agatha Christie novels \u2013 there are more flexible, open endings now \u2013 but something gets resolved\u00b4.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Part of the pleasure of Still Life<\/em> is in its Scottishness. How important is being Scottish to you?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Robbie Burns<\/em><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n


<\/strong>photo 3<\/em><\/strong> \u00b4I grew up in Fife, in a working-class environment \u2013 a totally different cultural background to people brought up in England. This might sound weird but when I went off to Oxford at 17, I felt I was in exile. I\u2019m a supporter of Scottish independence \u2013 an appropriate subject, as you and I are talking on Burns Night. My dad was a great Burns man, a member of Bowhill People\u2019s Burns Club \u2013 he was a lead tenor in their concert party\u00b4.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You introduce a garnish of Scots into Still Life<\/em> \u2013 I learned thrawn <\/em>means contrary and gallus<\/em><\/strong> <\/em>cheeky. Which are you?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n


<\/strong>\u00b4I have both attributes. It\u2019s the base level you start from as a Fifer: you have to be a wee bit gallus to get away with being thrawn\u00b4.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Women have a pretty high-handed attitude to men in your book \u2013 like old-style men but worse. Your detective Karen Pirie says of her boyfriend: \u201cTime to put Hamish back in his box and concentrate on work.\u201d There must be huge enjoyment in turning the tables?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n


<\/strong>\u00b4There is \u2013 although \u201cThat\u2019s you back in your box\u201d is a Scottish idiom. More seriously, though, I wanted to deal with the relationship between the classes [Karen is working class, Hamish privileged middle]. It is potentially treacherous and full of conflict\u00b4.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You write brilliantly in your books about what your characters like to eat and, during lockdown, you made <\/strong>a hilarious YouTube video<\/strong><\/a> instructing us on how to make \u201cHamish\u2019s hipster porridge\u201d. You are rude about his pretentious porridge in the book, but I suspect you of loving it in real life?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n


<\/strong>\u00b4Absolutely! My porridge is close to Hamish\u2019s porridge. My partner [Jo Sharp, a professor at St Andrews] is responsible for the line: \u201cHow can you have porridge where oats are a minority ingredient?\u00b4<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Karen Pirie, meanwhile, is a caffeine fiend. What\u2019s your pick-me-up of choice?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n


<\/strong>\u00b4I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever written a sensible sentence without two cups of coffee\u00b4<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Karen implies in the book that lesbianism is now mainstream in <\/strong>Scotland<\/strong><\/a>. You live in Edinburgh, but isn\u2019t acceptance more patchy than she suggests?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n


<\/strong>\u00b4It could still be hard to be openly gay in a small Scottish village but the attitude towards gay couples has transformed. When I came back to <\/em>Scotland<\/em><\/a> in 2014, it was clear the country I was coming back to was not the one I left. I started my career in 1977 as a journalist in Glasgow and the misogyny, fear and sectarianism in the newsroom at the Daily Record was staggering. It was only six months before I arrived that it was agreed women could wear trousers in the office and do night shifts. To survive, you had to be twice as good as the guys\u00b4.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

In the novel, you describe Boris Johnson (right)<\/em> as someone whose only experience of poverty lies in a \u201clack of imagination and compassion\u201d. And you refer gloomily to Brexit.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n


<\/strong>\u00b4I want my books to have authenticity, a sense of time and space. I get accused of being political but all fiction has a political stance\u00b4.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When did you add the Covid references?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n


<\/strong>\u00b4I started writing in January when there was no sign anything was coming, but the latter part was written in lockdown. I wanted the novel to reflect a gradual realisation \u2026 I\u2019m now writing a novel set in 1979. I need to be on solid ground. The present is like quicksand\u00b4.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You reveal in your acknowledgments you found\/find lockdown hard?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n


<\/strong>\u00b4I feel guilty at having a relatively straightforward time. I\u2019m lucky: my partner is also my best friend, so being in lockdown is not an enormous hardship. And I don\u2019t have small children \u2013 my son is at university and I\u2019m in one of the few jobs where my income has not been adversely affected by coronavirus. However, we all have that low-level thrum of anxiety which brings you down. I realised I was missing conversations with friends doing creative work, so a couple of times a week I tramp round \u2013 usually the Edinburgh cemeteries \u2013 with them\u00b4.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What kind of reader were you as a child?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n


<\/strong>\u00b4Voracious. We lived opposite the central library and I read my way around the shelves. And because it was Scotland in the 1960s, although you could take out four books, two had to be nonfiction\u00b4.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which genres do you enjoy most now?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n


<\/strong>\u00b4I try not to read by genre. I\u2019ve recently been reading literary nonfiction (<\/em>Hidden Nature<\/em><\/a> by Alys Fowler), a crime novel (<\/em>Miss Pym Disposes <\/em><\/a>by Josephine Tey) and a dystopian science fiction novel (<\/em>Radio Life<\/em><\/a> by Derek B Miller). I enjoyed all of them.\u00b4<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your best lockdown read?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n


<\/strong>\u00b4Ali Smith\u2019s Summer. She\u2019s the great writer of hope and imagination of our time\u00b4.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s on your bedside table now?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n


<\/strong>\u00b4<\/em>When I Was Ten<\/em><\/a> by Fiona Cummins\u00b4.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your favourite fictional heroine?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n


<\/strong>\u00b4<\/em>Sara Paretsky\u2019s VI Warshawski<\/em><\/a>. She made me understand there was a different way to write crime fiction. Her protagonist had a brain, a sense of humour, agency\u00b4.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s the best book you\u2019ve been given as a present?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n


<\/strong>\u00b4<\/em>A friend gave me Kate Millett\u2019s <\/em>Sexual Politics<\/em><\/a> when I was an undergraduate. She said: \u201cThis will change your life,\u201d and, by God, it did\u00b4.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u00b4m pretty sure that journalist was from The Guardian. I know they reviewed the book recently, saying it was published by Little, Brown for \u00a38.99. I\u00b4m sure it said I could order it from guardianbookshop.com<\/a>,  but delivery charges would apply. Or I could nip into the bookshop and just ask for Still Life<\/em> by Val McDermid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still not sure if I have learned anything about how to write, though. I mean Val McDermid is obviously interested in lots of things, but she hardly talked about writing? In fact, I think she probably talked more about reading. I mean what could I possibly learn from that ? What do reading and writing have to do with each other?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

sources: The Guardian<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

It has been great to have enjoyed the company of our readers throughout the second day of our  JoinedUpReadngAndWriting Festival and we\u00b4ll see you all early tomorrow morning. There might not be as long a walk, this time, though and we promise you will be able to stay right where you are and write. On hand to advise and to tell us about a clutch of new poetry initiatives will be Carol Ann Duffy and several more of the nation\u00b4s leading poets.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I wanted the novel to reflect a gradual realisation \u2026 I\u2019m now writing a novel set in 1979. I need to be on solid ground. The present is like quicksand\u00b4.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5356,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-literary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5348"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5348\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5359,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5348\/revisions\/5359"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}